Since the 1970s, buildings built in an airtight structure and an energy saving structure in an attempt to save energy and enhance energy efficacy continue to increase in a variety of industries. A variety of ways are widely under ways for an airtight construction of buildings and energy consumption reduction for the purpose of facilitating a carbon emission restriction and an emission trading due to a high oil price and a depression in economy and a framework convention of a climate change since the 2008s. For these reasons, the quality of indoor air of a building is fast being worsened.
The problems of indoor environments might be directed to a phenomenon of contaminating indoor environments as various contamination substances generating due to the activities of human beings are directly emitted into the indoor space, namely, it might be the problems occurring due to the indoor contamination.
A variety of physically, chemically and biologically different contamination substances might exist in the indoor air. Since the above mentioned contamination substances come from combined discharge sources such as the input of external air, cigarette smoke, heater, oven, cooking utensils, cement, washing agent, construction materials, paint, etc., the discharge amounts of each source are of very deviated differences depending on the kinds of contamination substances.
For example, the indoor air quality of a department store in Seoul was measured. As a result of the measurement, CO2 was 779 PPM, NO2 was 40 PPM, HCHO was 0.16 PPB, TSP was 0.023 μg/m2, and in terms of microorganism, fungus was 297 CFu/M3, and the total bacteria was 1622 CFu/m3. In addition, the offices located in industrial factories had a variety of harmful bad smell substances such as NH3, H2S, C6H6 etc. now that various process gases were introduced into the offices, the substances of which were reported to cause health disorders.
In order to resolve the above problems, a method is provided to eliminate micro dusts using an air purification machine with a plurality of filter units. In recent years, it is being attempted to deodorize and sterilize using an air purifier which is equipped with a deodorizing filter with carbon or something in addition to a micro dust elimination filter, and an antibacterial filter or something equipped with a silver nano carbon; however due to the structural characteristics of an indoor type air purification machine, deodorizing and sterilizing effects are bad since it is not easy to install enough a carbon and a silver nano carbon in the filters, and it is needed to periodically exchange the filters.
As a conventional method for eliminating bad smells in the air generally used in the industry, there are a washing tower for spraying washing water, an adsorption tower for eliminating bad smells by forcing to pass through filled carbon layers, and an incineration method. The above apparatuses are hard to be made in a compact size for the purpose of being used for indoor air purification due to the natural characteristics of the apparatuses. In addition, the washing tower is good only at eliminating bad smells from a hydrophilic substance, and the adsorption tower is needed to periodically exchange the carbon which is an adsorption material. The incineration method is needed to burn LNG, so it is hard to actually adapt for the purpose of indoor air purification.
In addition, as a method for sterilizing the bacteria in the contaminated air, there is disclosed an apparatus sterilizing bacteria by spraying, into the contaminated air, ozone water produced as ozone is dissolved in water; however since an ozone generator, an ozone dissolver and a discharged ozone treatment apparatus are necessarily needed, so the apparatus becomes complicated and is expensive. In particular, if the ozone discharged is not treated in a proper way, it might be discharged into the indoor space, so the respiratory organs of the people staying in the indoor space might be damaged. If ozone is discharged into the air, optical chemical smog might be formed, thus contaminating the air environment.
In terms of an apparatus and a method for purifying the air using ozone like the above mentioned methods, there is a Korean utility model registration publication number 0434060 (Title of the design: Advanced air deodorizor and process based on ozone (water), plasma and catalyst) discloses a deodorizer and its method which is characterized in that an ozone pump is pumped for an elimination of bad smell into an ozone water tank, and it is sprayed via a spraying nozzle, thus purifying the air. The moisture is eliminated using demister and is discharged. However, the deodorizer is directed to a construction purifying the air by spraying ozone water into the air which rises up in the interior of the purification container. In this case, the purification container should be inevitably larger, namely, it is impossible to make it smaller, so such the above deodorizer is used for only the purpose of industry, not for the purpose of a home or an indoor space.
The Korean patent publication number 2008-96973 (Title of the invention: Apparatus for spraying ozone fog) discloses an apparatus for spraying ozone fog which is directed to enhancing an air purification performance in such a way to spray air along with ozone and water. The apparatus for spraying ozone fog is based on a method for directly spraying ozone into the air, so the humidity of the indoor space increases. Since the ozone is not dissolved in water, but ozone and water are separately sprayed into the air, it cannot be used in a space with a high humidity. It is basically designed to spray directly toward a person, a thing, an apparatus or something, it is uneasy to use. In addition, severe harmfulness might occur due to the ozone which is directly sprayed.
The Korean utility model registration publication number 0428872 (Title of the invention: The air cleaner with disinfection and sterilization for in the room which possesses an ozone water making device) is directed to an air cleaner with disinfection and sterilization for in a room which possesses an ozone water making device which is characterized in that when sterilizing food materials and various utensils with ozone water, an inclusion concentration and an inclusion time of ozone water are made to be enough while continuously supplying ozone water, and the apparatus can be movably installed at an indoor space, thus purifying indoor air and sterilizing the whole indoor spaces; however the above air cleaner with disinfection and sterilization for in the room is directed to directly discharging ozone gas into the indoor air, so the discharged ozone gas might directly damage human body.
A small size apparatus designed to purify the indoor space using an arc discharge occurring from a plurality of spaced-apart electrode is widely being developed for the purpose of the use in the indoor space by resolving the above mentioned problems.
The Korea patent publication number 2005-102600 (Title of the invention: Plasma odor and germ remover) is directed to a plasma odor and germ remover which is characterized in that contaminated air containing a variety of harmful substances such as various volatile organic compounds and smell and bacteria is in real time oxidized and decomposed with the aid of sliding arc plasma produced from a plurality of electrodes and plasma oxidation ion produced from a photocatalyst filter. The above-mentioned plasma odor and germ remover is theoretically possible to remove contaminated substances with the aid of a sliding arc plasma by way of an arc discharge and a plasma oxidation ion produced from a photocatalyst filter; however since the exited state of contaminated air caused by means of an arc discharge ends within a very short time, the oxidation and decomposition efficiencies of the harmful substances contained in the contaminated air are very low, and there are not provided a certain means for shielding electromagnetic waves produced during arc discharge and a certain means for removing ozone, so the produced electromagnetic waves and ozone might provide human bodies with serious bad effects, whereby the above plasma odor and germ remover is not well applied to the purifications of indoor air.
The Korean patent publication number 2008-4018 (Title of the invention: An air purification system of a cattle shed, removing device ammonium-nitrate of ozonizer) is directed to an air purification system of a cattle shed which is characterized in that there are provided a pair of electrode plates generating ozone by way of arc discharge and an ozone generation means containing an oxidation catalyst layer which facilitates an oxidation operation, thus oxidizing and removing bad smells and harmful gases with the aid of ozone produced by means of the ozone generation means. The above mentioned air purification system is characterized in that since the excited state of the contaminated air, which excited state occurs by means of arc discharge, ends within a very short time, so the oxidation and decomposition efficiency of the harmful substances contained in the contaminated air is very low, and since there are not provided a means for shielding the electromagnetic waves generating during the arc discharge and a means for reducing noises, the electromagnetic waves and noises are harmful to human bodies, and since the ozone generating during the arc discharge is discharged into the air, it provides bad effects to environment.
The Korean patent registration publication number 10-0840935 (Title of the invention: Plasma and bio filter hybrid gas cleaning system) is directed to a plasma and bio filter hybrid gas cleaning system which is characterized in that a harmful gas decomposition performance is enhanced by concurrently supplying water and harmful gas to a plasma reaction part, and a harmful gas purification function of microorganism is enhanced by uniformly supplying micro water particles and oxygen to a bio filter with the aid of a fluid nozzle spray and plasma discharge. The above mentioned plasma and bio filter hybrid gas cleaning system is characterized in that the excited state of contaminated air produced by means of arc discharge ends within a very short time, so the oxidation and decomposition efficiencies of harmful substances contained in the contaminated air are very low, and since there are not provided a means for shielding electromagnetic waves produced during arc discharge, a means for eliminating ozone, and a means for reducing noises, whereby the electromagnetic waves, ozone and noise might seriously affect human body. So, it is not well applied to the purification of the indoor air.
In conclusion, a conventional small size apparatus for purifying indoor air using arc discharge is characterized in that since the excited state of contaminated air produced by means of arc discharge ends within a very short time, the oxidation and decomposition efficiencies of the harmful substances contained in the contaminated air are very low, and since there are not provided a means for shielding electromagnetic waves produced during arc discharge, a means for eliminating ozone, and a means for reducing noises, whereby the electromagnetic waves, ozone and noise might seriously affect human body. So, it is not well applied to the purification of the indoor air.